BOOK I PART III
exist after the dissolution of the body, that all
the reasons we can invent, however strong in
themselves, and however much assisted by ed-
ucation, are never able with slow imaginations
to surmount this difficulty, or bestow a suffi-
cient authority and force on the idea. I rather
choose to ascribe this incredulity to the faint
idea we form of our future condition, derived
from its want of resemblance to the present life,
than to that derived from its remoteness. For
I observe, that men are everywhere concerned
about what may happen after their death, pro-
vided it regard this world; and that there are
few to whom their name, their family, their
friends, and their country are in any period of
time entirely indifferent.
And indeed the want of resemblance in this
case so entirely destroys belief, that except